


I'm Here

by Mads1233



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bottom Harry Potter, Cutting, Daddy Draco, Depressed Harry Potter, Drarry, Eating Disorders, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Gay Draco Malfoy, Good Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter Has a Daddy Kink, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Harry Potter is a Brat, Harry Potter is an innocent bean, Harry is a Little Shit, Hogwarts Eighth Year, M/M, Minor Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley, Pansy and Hermione are Best Friends, Past Abuse, Suicidal Harry Potter, Suicide Attempt, Top Draco Malfoy, Veela Draco Malfoy, bi harry potter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 16,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26797780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mads1233/pseuds/Mads1233
Summary: After the war, Harry has become depressed. He blames all the deaths in the war on himself, he started cutting, he doesn't eat right, and he has nightmares almost daily. When he and his friends get invited back to Hogwarts for their 8th year and his crush he's had for years starts to try and help him will he get better? Will he finally become happy once again?Warning: mentions of cutting, eating disorders, and nightmares are in this story. Please do not read if you are triggered easily.I do not own Harry Potter, credits to J.K. Rowling
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley
Comments: 46
Kudos: 336
Collections: Started stories





	1. Chapter 1

Harry was walking through the broken corridors of Hogwarts. He knew where he was heading, the Great Hall, the place where so many people had died. Because of him. 

This wasn’t the first time he’s had dreams like this. To be quite honest, they happen on an almost nightly basis. 

In the Great Hall stood Fred, Remus, Tonks, Madeye, Cedric, Sirius, and his Mum and Dad. They stood there yelling at Harry, telling him that it was his fault they died. Harry fell to his knees crying and apologizing profusely even though he knew they would never accept them. 

It was the same dream every night and every time he’d wake up crying. This morning when he woke up, however, the dream had affected him more than it had other nights. He sat up in Sirius’ bed drenched in sweat and hyperventilating. 

‘No,’ he thought. ‘Not a panic attack. Not today.’ He knew the only thing that could help him was cutting. The pain calmed him down. He had grown so used to pain growing up with the Dursley’s he didn’t know how to cope without it. After years of Vernon and Dudley punching and kicking him he’d grown to love the pain. 

The reason he didn’t want this to happen today was because today was the first day back at Hogwarts. He had been invited to learn again as an 8th-year student as well as all the other students in his year. He knew that if there were fresh cuts on his arm someone was bound to find out but he couldn’t help it. 

He got out of bed and grabbed his razor he told others he used for shaving and ran into the bathroom. He lifted his sleeve and cut himself over and over until he calmed down. 3 cuts. One of his better days thankfully. 

Harry set the razor down and undressed to get in the shower to clean off the blood and sweat. He stepped in and watched the blood drip from his arm for a minute before getting out of his trance and cleaning himself. 

After he finished, he dressed himself in a pair of black ripped jeans, and a long sleeve shirt. He looked over to his clock sitting on his end table to check the time. 6:48. He had just over two hours before he needed to be on the train. 

He went downstairs and placed his things by the fireplace before walking into the kitchen. Grabbing an apple and a copy of The Quibbler, he sat down. 

He didn’t eat much of the apple before he sighed, it was about time to get to Kings Cross Station. Yes, it took him two hours to eat some of an apple. He threw the leftover apple in the garbage, grabbed his stuff, and flooed to the station. 

He was 20 minutes early because Hermione said if he wasn’t she would drag him out of his house. As he walked towards the train he spotted a group of red hair. When he walked over Mrs. Weasley, Hermione, and Ron all ran up to him and engulfed him in a bear hug.

“Oh honey, how have you been? It’s been too long,” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Harry, you’re here! I was just telling them if you weren’t here in the next 5 minutes I was going to apperate to your house and drag you out!” Hermione said.

“Hey mate, how are ya?” Ron asked after he let go of Harry.

“I-I um,” Harry stuttered, trying to listen to them all talk at once. “I’m fine. And ‘mione, there’s no need for that. What’s new with you guys?”

“Honestly Harry, do you even read the letters we send you?” Hermione sighed before continuing, “Ron and I have been chosen by Headmistress McGonagall to act as Head of House this year while she is getting used to her new position or finds a new teacher to be the new Head of house. That means that we won’t be able to sit with you on the train this time. We have to go to the Perfects cabin to find out what we will be doing,” she explained.

“Oh, that’s great! I’m happy for you guys! And don’t worry about not being able to sit with me, I’ll be fine,” Harry smiled.

“Well come on, let's get on the train, yeah? Bye Mum,” Ron said waving to his Mother. 

“Bye hun, write to me guys!” She yelled as they all walked off.

“See ya at school Harry,” Hermione said when they got on the train.

“Don’t be too bored without us,” Ron winked at him.

Harry chuckled a bit. “I’ll try not to,” He said and walked off.

Harry walked to the back of the train, smiling and nodding to people when they said ‘hello’ to him. He found an empty compartment and sat down by the window, looking out at the people saying goodbye to their family. 

The door to the compartment slid open, “C-can I sit here?” A quiet voice asked. 

Without looking at who it was he said, “If you must.” The person sat down on the bench opposite of Harry.

“P-Potter?” The person asked.

“Malfoy,” Harry responded when he saw who it was. He looked back out the window as the train started to move. The entire time he felt Malfoy’s eyes on him. Harry wasn’t bothered by it though, he was used to people staring at him. After all, he is Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived. The one that killed Voldemort.

He shivered, ‘Was the train always this cold?’ He thought. He was rubbing his hands against his biceps in an attempt to warm himself when Malfoy held a sweatshirt out to him. Harry looked at the boy confused.

“Well? Do you want it or not? I’m not cold so you can use it,” He said, shaking the sweatshirt a bit as if to get Harry to decide faster.

“U-um, thanks,” Harry said slowly before reaching out and taking it and putting it on. Although he wouldn’t admit it out loud the smell of Draco that took over the sweatshirt was quite lovely. It quickly became one of his favorite smells. Wait- had he really just thought that? Is the smell of Draco being one of his favorites? And since when did he start referring to him as ‘Draco’?

He was consumed in his thoughts and soon drifted to sleep. He unconsciously snuggled farther into the sweatshirt that was too big on him. But once again, his dreams were plagued by the people that he let die. In his dream, he started crying and screaming as well as the real him. 

Draco was so invested in a book he started reading a little while after Harry had fallen asleep that when Harry started screaming he almost dropped it. He looked over at Harry who was now crying and screaming words that Draco couldn’t make out. Quickly, he marked his page and sat next to Harry, shaking him in an attempt to wake him. 

“Potter, wake up. It’s just a dream,” He said, shaking him a bit more. “Harry, come on, wake up!” He started to shake him a little more aggressively. Soon he got Harry to wake up. He pulled the now awake and crying boy into a hug. 

“Shh, you’re okay now. It was just a dream,” He whispered, slightly rocking them back and forth. Harry clung to him as if Draco were the only thing keeping him alive. He cried harder then he had in a while. Draco kept rocking them and whispering calming things in Harry's ears until he finally calmed down a bit. 

“Are you okay?” Draco asked, pulling the smaller boy out of his chest but still hugging him. “What was the dream about?”

“I-I’ll be okay…” Harry hiccuped. “I- it was-” he started, “Wait, why are you being so nice to me? I thought that you hated me?” He said, pulling away from Draco. He didn’t want to pull away from him though. Being in his arms made Harry feel safe. Safer then he’d felt in a long time, if ever. 

Draco sighed, “I’m being nice because I’m done being my dad. I want to be myself and this is who I am, believe it or not. And Harry, no, I don’t hate you. I never did. My father told me that I was to become your enemy. I only wanted to be your friend.” He tried to pull Harry back to him and to his surprise he let him.

Harry laid his head on Draco’s chest. “I’m sorry for all the things I’ve done to you. I really am. A-and to answer your question from before… It was of all the people I let die…” He said the last part quietly. He lifted his head up a bit to wipe the tears from his eyes causing his sleeve to fall a bit revealing part of one of this morning's cuts.

Suddenly Draco grabbed Harry’s arm. “W-What are you doing?” He said, trying to pull his arm back. 

Draco just ignored him and pulled down his sleeve to see an arm littered with cuts and scars. “H-Harry… why?” He breathed.

“I-I- It doesn’t matter…” Harry stuttered. “It’s not like you actually care anyways,” He sighed and finally stopped trying to take his arm away. 

Draco looked at him in the eyes and said, “But Harry, I do care. I really do.” He moved to sit next to his raven-hair crush. He softly let his hand slide down so that he could hold his hand. “Please tell me why you did this.”

After a few seconds of silence, Harry whispered, “Because I deserve it… I was supposed to die like the others but I didn’t. I let other people die. It’s my fault that they are dead. I’m supposed to be the one that died!” At this point, he started crying. Draco used a spell to draw the curtains on the windows and put up a silencing charm so that people passing by couldn’t hear them. “They all had so much going for them like Tonks and Remus! They had a kid! I let them die and now their sons an orphan! It should have been me!”

Draco pulled the smaller boy into a hug letting him sob into his chest once again. “Shh, don’t say that. You have so much to live for. So much. And it wasn’t your fault that they died. They knew what the risks of being on the front line were. They fought knowing that they could die and now their son will know that his parents died as heroes. Harry, none of this is your fault at all.”

The blonde kept whispering sweet things and rubbing the raven-haired boys back until his crying quieted and he fell asleep. Draco laid his head in his lap and played with his hair while he thought about everything that just happened.


	2. Chapter 2

Too soon had Hogwarts start to appear in the distance. Reluctantly, Draco shook Harry’s shoulder in an attempt to wake him. “Come on now, we are almost there, time to wake up Harry,” He whispered. 

Harry groaned, fixing his glasses that had started to fall off his face. He looked around trying to figure out where he was jumping up and pushing himself as far as he could against the wall when he saw where he was lying. “I- I’m sorry, I-I,” He stuttered, his face as red as Ron’s hair. 

Draco chuckled and pulled Harry back down onto the bench. “It’s okay. I don’t mind being your pillow if it means that you can actually get some decent sleep,” He smiled. Thinking about it after he fell asleep on Draco he didn’t have a single dream like he had taken some Dreamless Sleep. 

Harry played with the sleeves of Draco’s hoodie for a second, looking down at the ground. “Um,” He started, “I’m sorry for putting you in that position earlier.” He brought up his little episode. “J-just, please don’t tell Ron or Hermione. I don’t want to worry them more than they already are,” He pleaded.

“Hmm,” Draco put a finger on his chin, ‘thinking’. He already knew what he was going to say but he wanted to mess with Harry a little. “I suppose. But I only won’t tell them if you let me help you,” He compromised. 

“I can’t let you do that,” Harry whispered. “I mean I’m already lost. There’s no way to help…” He trailed off. 

“Well, your choices are, let me help you get better and not have the Weasel and the Mudblood know or, I tell them and have them fuss over you,” The platinum-blonde smirked. He knew what Harry was going to choose.

“Fine,” Harry sighed. “Do what you want, just don’t tell them. And also, don’t call them that!” He said just as the train pulled up to the Hogsmead station. 

“Alright,” he said smiling. “Let’s go before we miss the carriages,” he said, holding his hand out for him to take. Harry gladly took Draco’s hand and let himself be dragged to the carriages. 

They got on, not even thinking of looking for Ron and Hermione who Harry was sure were looking for him. The entire ride there neither made the move to let go of the others hand. Once they arrived at the castle Harry stopped them. 

“I should probably give you your sweatshirt back, huh,” he said and reluctantly started to take it off but Draco stopped him. 

“It’s fine. You keep it, it looks good on you,” he said, winking.

Harry blushed, looking away and saying thanks before looking back at Draco and asking shyly, “C-could you come sit with me at the Gryffindor table?”

Draco smiled, “Sure. Y’know you’re adorable,” he said, ruffling up Harry’s hair causing him to blush more and giggle. 

“Come on,” Harry said, grabbing Draco’s hand and pulling him into the Great Hall, ignoring the stares they got. They both sat down at the table and waited for Ron and Hermione to join them. 

Soon they walked in and Hermione started her lecture. “Harry! There you are! We were waiting for you at the station, why didn’t you come find us?” She yelled.

Hary shrunk into his seat and looked at his lap. “Sorry ‘mione,” he said quietly.

Sighing, she said, “It’s ok, I just got worried because…” she trailed off, looking at Draco. “What are you doing here?” She spat.

Draco rolled his eyes, “I’m here because Harry asked me to be. Also, I wanted to apologize for the way I’ve treated you all these years. I’m done being the person my father wanted me to be,” he said, holding his hand out to the mud- er Granger.

Hermione studied him for a minute as if she were waiting for him to laugh and say it was all a joke before she shook his hand and looked back to Harry. “What did you do while you were at your house this summer? I didn’t get a letter or an invitation to come over at all!”

Harry laughed a bit, rubbing the back of his neck. “I wanted to remodel Siri’s house a bit so I was a bit caught up and forgot to write you guys back, sorry.” Draco didn’t believe a word Harry said but he didn’t comment on it. 

The four of them made small-talk for a bit before Blase and Pansy came over and sat near Draco. “There you are! Finally found you!” Pansy said. 

“Oh, hey guys. How have you been?” Draco asked. Blase was about to respond before Hermione interrupted him.

“You guys are all fine just coming over here and sitting with us?” She questioned. “I thought you hated Gryffindor's.”

Pansy looked at her and smiled. “I for one never hated you. That was all loverboy here,” she said, pointing at Draco and in return, she got a kick in the shin. 

“‘Loverboy’?” Ron asked, with one eyebrow raised. 

“Nothing. Ignore her,” Draco said quickly. 

Blase was about to comment but McGonagall stepped up announcing for the first years to get sorted. After the sorting, she went up to the podium to sag her announcements.

“This year, since there is an extra year here we have decided to make another dorm room for them. After these announcements, I would like all 8th years to follow Hagrid to your common room. This year will be different from how it was like while Dumbledore was Headmaster. We will be having parties so that the houses can get along better. The first party will be in two weeks. Slytherin and Gryffindor will be together as well as Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Communicate with your houses to pick a day for the party. 8th years may attend if they want or they can have their own in their common room. On another note, the Forbidden Forest is forbidden and all students,” she said looking directly at the Golden Trio, “must be in their common rooms by 10. Now that I’ve said that, let’s eat,” as she said this food appeared on the table and people started eating.

As per normal Ron filled his plate and dug in and Hermione was lecturing him about his bad eating habits. The Slytherins also got their food and started eating. Harry, however, just stared at the food in disgust. 

“Hey, are you going to eat anything?” Draco asked, looking at Harry with worry. 

“No, I had a big breakfast so I’m good,” he said with a reassuring smile. 

“Yeah, mate. Harry never eats much. He says it’s ‘cause he’s not used to eating a lot back with his muggle family. We’ve been tryin’ to get him to eat more since first year but we never could.,” Ron said in between bites.

“What does that mean?” Draco asked, looking back to Harry. “Why didn’t you eat a lot when you lived with the muggles?”

Harry glared at Ron before sighing, “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.” Draco looked at him, confused but Harry just ignored him.

After a few minutes of eating in silence, Ginny came up to Harry and held on to his arm. “Hey Harry, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other! How have you been?” She asked. 

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his seat and said, “Uh, hey Gin. I’m fine how about you?”

Before Ginny could answer Draco said, “You know you’re making him uncomfortable.”

“What? I’m not,” she spat. “Harry loves me, why would I make him uncomfortable? I think you’re the one that’s making him uncomfortable being at our table filthy Death Eater.”

“Don’t call him that, Gin. He’s not a Death Eater and he’s not making me uncomfortable,” Harry said, shrugging her off and unconsciously moving closer to Draco.

Ginny scoffed, “You’ve done something to him, haven’t you! You put him under the Imperius curse or something! Harry would never take the side of a Death Eater over his girlfriend! She screamed, drawing the attention of the entire Great Hall.

“He hasn’t done anything to me, Ginny!” Harry yelled back. “And you’re not my girlfriend, we broke up months ago!”

“You filthy Death Eater! Tell me what you did to my boyfriend right now!” She said, pulling her wand out.

“You heard him, I didn’t do shit,” Draco yelled. 

“Ginerva Weasley, stop that this instant!” McGonagall yelled. “My office, now.”

“B-but can’t you see he’s done something to Harry?” She stuttered. 

“All I see is two people who used to fight becoming friends. Now let’s go,” She said, walking out, Ginny following.

Harry sighed, “I can’t wait to get out of here. I just want to go to the common room already.” He could feel everybody staring at him and Draco and it made him anxious. 

“Do you want to go ask Hagrid if we could leave now? You guys are fine with that, right?” He said, looking at the 8th years that sat at the table. They all nodded in agreement so Draco took Harry’s hand and walked up to Hagrid. “Hey, do you mind showing the 8th years to the common room now? Most of us- the ones sitting at the Gryffindor table that is - are ready to go.”

“Sure, tink dats fer teh bes’,” he said before standing up and addressing the entire Great Hall. “Good evenin’ ev'ryone. Can teh 8th yer’s follow me to yer commn room.” 

All of the 8th years got up from their seats and followed him out. They walked to a part of the school that Harry or Draco have never been in. ‘Must be a new addition,’ Draco thought as he walked beside Harry in the back of the group still holding his hand. Up in the front of the group they could hear Hagrid and Hermione talking about how his class will be this year.

“You ok?” Draco asked, looking down at the smaller boy.

“I’m fine,” He sighed in response.

They arrived at a dead-end before Hagrid turned to face everyone. “Dis is like teh wall at teh Leaky C’ldron,” He said before tapping a pattern on the wall which Draco quickly memorized. “Yer names are on teh doors. Now go find yeh rooms.”

Everyone went off to find their dooms, girls in the left tower, boys in the right. Draco walked up the stairs followed by Harry. The first room they passed belonged to Ron and Blase, the second Neville and Theo, and the third Harry and Draco. There were at least two more floors above them for some of the other students. The two boys walked into their room and started unpacking.

“Hey, Harry?” Draco asked after a while, causing Harry to look up from his trunk on the floor. “Can I bandage your arm? So that it doesn’t get infected.”

Harry looked down at his arm. Not being able to come up with a reason to not let him he shrugged and stood up. Draco pulled out a medkit from his own trunk and told Harry to sit on his bed before walking over to him and crouching down in front of him. He grabbed out something to clean his arm before wrapping a bandage around it.

“There, just like new,” Draco whispered, holding the others hand. Harry gave the boy a small smile in response. “Why don’t we go down to the common room and hang out with the others?” Draco suggested and pulled Harry downstairs after receiving a nod.

They walked in still holding hands and sat down in a loveseat across from Ron, Hermione, Pansy, and Blase who were all having a conversation. “Draco! My man!” Blase said as they sat down. “Got yourself a boyfriend?” He joked.

“No we are just friends,” he responded, rolling his eyes. 

Harry listened to the five of them talk like they had been friends for years. It was nice to know that they could all put their pasts behind them and become friends. After a while Harry had fallen asleep, his head falling on the Dracos shoulder. Draco smiled at the sleeping boy before saying, “I think we should call it a night. I need to get this one to bed.” He nodded to the boy laying on him. They all bid him goodnight as he carried the small boy up to his room and tucked him into bed.

“Good night, Harry,” He whispered before climbing into his own bed and falling asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Draco quickly sat up in his bed when he heard someone scream. Looking around he saw Harry thrashing around in his bed, his face soaked with tears. Quickly, he got out of his bed and ran to the sobbing boy.  
“Harry!” He yelled, shaking the boy's shoulder. “Come on, wake up! It’s only a dream!”  
Harry shot up, tears still flowing freely from his eyes. He ignored Draco, not realizing he was there and ran to his trunk. Draco got up and followed him, trying to get him to calm down.  
“Harry? Are you ok? What are you doing?” He asked.  
When he saw him pull out a razor that was covered in dry blood he started freaking out. “Harry no!” He yelled, trying to grab the razor from him. “Calm down! Come on, give me that. Don’t do it!”  
Harry refused to let Draco have the razor. It was like it was the one thing he needed at the moment and that scared the blonde.  
“Harry please,” Draco said quietly. “Give me this. You don’t need it. I can help you, just please put the razor down.”  
Using one hand to lightly hold the others wrist Draco reached up and held Harry’s face, forcing him to look at Draco. “Shh, calm down. Everythings ok. I’m right here, I will protect you,” He whispered.  
Harry dropped the razor and clung to Draco’s shirt, burying his face into his shoulder.  
Draco held the smaller boy as close to himself as possible, rubbing calming circles on his back and whispering sweet nothings in his ear.  
Kicking the razor away from them, Draco led them to Harry's bed and laid them down so that they were cuddling.  
For at least an hour Harry laid there crying into Draco’s chest before he calmed down and fell asleep in Draco’s arms. Draco tried to get up and go to his own bed but anytime he tried to untangle their limbs Harry whimpered and pulled him closer. Giving up, he laid there for a little bit before placing a kiss on Harry’s head and drifting to sleep himself. 

***

Hermione’s POV

“You guys go ahead, I’m going to go check on Harry and Malfoy. I’ll meet you guys down there!” I said, pushing Ron, Seamus, and Dean out of the common room.  
“Are you sure ‘Mione? I’m fine with waiting for you,” Ron asked, ignoring his growling stomach.  
“Yes! Now go! I can hear your stomach growling from here! Go eat!” I said. After the wall reformed behind my friends, I turned around heading to the boys tower. They didn’t put up wards keeping girls out of the boys dorm and boys out of the girls since we are all now adults.  
I climb up the stairs glancing at each nameplate before reaching Harry and Draco’s room.  
All of last night the only thing that ran through my mind was ‘How the hell did those two become friends?’ The last time that she saw them together they were fighting on opposite sides of the war and now they are acting like they have been friends for years. That just doesn’t happen unless- no! That’s not possible. I shake my head, trying to clear my head of those thoughts.  
I reach their door and knock on it. “Harry? Malfoy? Are you guys ok? It’s nearly breakfast time,” I said through the door. I waited a moment listening for a response but I didn’t get one so I knocked again. “Harry? Draco?” I ask, starting to get a little worried. “If you don’t answer in the next 5 seconds I’m coming in!” I warn.  
When I don’t get another response I try the door only to find it locked so I did Alohomora to open it up. I walked in and looked around to see Draco’s bed already empty. (I couldn’t see Harry’s bed from the door. Draco’s bed and Harry’s closed curtains stopped me from being able to see) “Harry?” I ask, walking into the room. I heard someone mumble and groan in Harry's bed so I walked over and opened the curtain. “Harry it’s brea-” I cut my sentence off when I see Harry and Draco cuddling. “Eeeeh,” I squeal, causing both of them to jump up in surprise.  
“W-What’s happening?” Draco yelled, looking around. When he saw Hermione he relaxed and said; “What the hell are you screeching about? You sound like Pansy when she’s ‘fangirling’ about something!”  
“You two are absolutely adorable!” I respond, smiling.  
“Huh? How?” Harry asked, tiredly. He laid his head down on Draco’s shoulder closing his eyes again.  
“That! Right there! You’re adorable! When did you two start dating?” I squeal.  
Harry’s head shot up to look at me, a heavy blush covering their faces.  
“W-we’re not-,” Draco started.  
“N-no you’ve got-,” Harry stuttered.  
“Oh come on. I know you two like each other!” I whined.  
“‘M-mione, we really only just became close yesterday,” Harry muttered.  
“Ugh, I guess it would be rushing it if you got together now,” I say, mostly to myself. “But when you do you must tell me!”  
“Why do you think that we are going to get together?” Draco said.  
“Please, you were literally just sleeping together,” I point out. “People that are just friends don’t sleep together.”  
“He had a nightmare, that’s why I’m in his bed!” Draco said, the blush still on his face.  
I look at Harry concerned. “You still are getting nightmares? I thought you said they stopped after You-Know-Who died.”  
Harry looked down at his lap, “I- uh- they did stop. It was just one of those random nightmares and when I woke up it kinda gave me flashbacks to y’know, the war and all. I’m fine now though.”  
“You sure?” I ask him worriedly.  
“Mhmm,” He hummed. “We should be getting ready now. Hermione? If you don’t mind…” He said trailing off.  
“Oh, yeah! Sure! I’ll see you down at breakfast!” I said and turned to walk out of the room.  
On the way to the Great Hall, I think about Harry and Malfoy. There are two ways that they could become good friends like that after being at each other's throats for the past 8 years but I’m not sure which one of my theories is right. I’ll have to go to the library later to do some research.


	4. Chapter 4

“How long have you been having nightmares?” Draco asked after Hermione left.  
“I don’t know. As long as I can remember I guess. But after 5th year I started having dreams about Voldemort,” Harry answered, looking at his lap.  
“What was the one last night about?”   
“The people who died,” He mumbled.   
“Is that what it normally is?” Draco asked. He grabbed Harry’s hand and started rubbing calming circles on the back of it.  
“No, sometimes it’s about my muggle family,” He said looking at their hands.  
“Your muggle family? Why would you have nightmares about them?” He asked curiously, remembering yesterday when Ron brought them up. ‘There must be something going on that I don’t know about with them. And it doesn’t seem to be good,’ Draco thought. He was going to find out about it and he would help in whatever way possible.  
“I-i don’t want to talk about it,” He stuttered, turning to look out the window.  
Draco sighed, “That’s fine. Let’s get ready before Hermione comes back up and drags us down in our pjs,” He said, referring back to 5th year when she did that to Harry.  
“Ugh,” Harry groaned. “That was bloody embarrassing.”  
Laughing a bit, Draco got up and went to his trunk and pulled out an outfit, Harry did the same.  
“Let’s go, then,” Draco said once they were both ready. He walked over to the door and held it open for Harry who was behind him. They walked down to the Great Hall in a comfortable silence. Walking in, Draco turned to Harry and said, “Want me to sit with you again?”  
Harry nodded and grabbed Draco’s hand and pulled him over to the Gryffindor table.   
“Hey mate, what took you guys so long?” Ron said when they arrived.  
“We overslept. Good thing Hermione came to get us or we would have missed classes too,” Harry said, sitting down in his normal spot, pulling Draco down next to him.   
Harry only grabbed a bagel to eat so Draco reached over and put some more food onto his plate. “Draco,” Harry whined quietly. “I don’t think that I can eat all of that.”  
“Try? Please?” He said.   
Harry looked down at his plate before sighing, “Fine.”  
After eating his bagel, he picked up his fork and started eating some eggs too. He got through with almost half of it before standing up and running into the bathroom. Draco quickly ran to follow him.   
“I’m sorry, Harry. I didn’t mean to make you eat till you threw up. I just wanted you to eat until you were full. I’m so sorry,” Draco whispered, rubbing circles on the smaller boys back as he threw up into the toilet. Draco kept saying things and rubbing Harry’s back until he finished and sat next to Draco on the floor of the stall.  
“I’m sorry Harry,” Draco said, holding him close.  
Harry closed his eyes and laid his head on Draco’s shoulder. “It’s ok,” He said, his voice sounded a bit raw now that his throat was sore.  
They sat there for a while like that until the first bell chimed telling them that Breakfast was over and that it was time to head to class if they had one.   
“Come on, I bet Pansy and Hermione have our timetables,” Draco said standing up, pulling Harry up with him.  
“Can’t we just skip? I don’t want to go to class,” He said, laying his head on Draco’s chest. “I’m tired and I don’t feel good.”  
Draco sighed and started rubbing circles on Harry’s back again. “I could take you to Madam Pomfrey and see if you could stay there for a bit but that would be your only other option,” He said.  
Harry groaned, “Draco!” He whined, holding out the ‘O’ like a child. He danced around on his feet as well, as if that would help him. “Please? I don’t wanna go!”  
Draco huffed, “You’re acting like a child,” He said, messing up Harry’s already messy hair. “But fine. Let’s go to our first class and after, if you still don’t want to be there we can go to the Room of Requirements and stay there for a bit. How does that sound?” He said, giving in.   
“Yay!” Harry yelled, suddenly jumping up and wrapping his arms around Draco’s neck, causing him to stumble a bit.  
Draco wrapped his arms around Harry’s waist and laughed. “Alright, silly. Let’s go find Pansy and Hermione.”   
“Alright!” Harry said, grabbing his hand and pulling Draco out of the bathroom.  
‘And here I thought I’d have to drag him out,’ Draco thought laughing to himself.  
They found the girls across from the doors of the Great Hall waiting for them. Harry let go of my hand and ran up to Hermione, interrupting their conversation.   
“Oh! There you are, Harry! I was wondering where you two ran off to,” Hermione said, handing him his timetable and starting a small conversation with him as Draco talked to Pansy.  
“Dray! Here’s your crap. Stop making me get your stuff all the time you ass hat,” She said shoving his timetable into his chest before walking off.   
He turned to Harry and Hermione and joined their conversation.   
“Really Harry, you need to stop running off. I’m not going to be here your entire life so that I can get things for you while you’re running around having fun. Someday I’ll be the Minister and I won’t be there to help you all the time,” She reprimanded.   
“Sorry “Mione,” Harry mumbled before happily turning to Draco, ignoring the rest of Hermione’s rant and grabbing his timetable.   
“We have five classes together! Two of them are today,” Harry said, handing back Draco’s timetable. Draco looked down to see that they had DADA first thing today.  
“Alright, let’s go now then,” Draco said as he started walking, Harry and Hermione in tow.  
On the way there Draco listened to Harry and Hermione talking, only saying something every once in a while. It felt nice to have more friends, especially since there is no more fighting between any of them.  
When they got there Hermione said goodbye and walked over to Ron to sit next to him, leaving Draco and Harry the last empty table.  
They pulled out their textbooks, parchment, quills, and some ink before turning to talk to one another while waiting for the new professor.   
“I hope this year we have a normal professor,” Harry sighed.  
“Yeah,” Draco scoffed. “Hasn’t pretty much all of them come after you?”  
“All except Remus,” He said, looking down at the table.  
Draco was about to say something else but then the new professor came in.   
“Hello everyone! My name is Professor Lessy. Aimer Lessy,” He said. “I welcome you all back for your 7th - er 8th year for some of you, I guess. This year will be pretty much a review of years 1 through 6, so it will be an easy year. I have heard of the crazed professors that have had this job before me and I can assure you that I will harm no one nor am I not who I say I am. Headmistress McGonagall made sure that I took several tests and questions under Veritaserum,” He said.


	5. Chapter 5

After class Harry quickly got up and packed his stuff. Once finished, he grabbed Draco - who wasn’t finished packing up - and dragged him out of the room. Sighing, he yelled to Pansy before they reached the door. “Pansy! Grab my stuff, would you? I have to go!”  
They walked a little bit before Draco spoke up again. “So do you still not feel good or do you just not want to go to class?”  
Harry faked a cough, “Still not feeling well,” He said before faking another cough.  
Draco rolled his eyes. “You’re a dork,” He scoffed.  
“I am not a whale's penis thank you very much!” Harry said, pretending to be offended.  
“What?” Draco asked, giving him a weird look.  
Harry sighed, “Nothing, nevermind.”  
“Um, okay then,” Draco said slowly.  
Once they reached the RoR Draco spoke up again. “What do you want to do?” He asked.  
Harry only shrugged his shoulders.  
Thinking for a minute, he thought of something. He let go of Harry’s hand and paced in front of the wall. The door appeared and Draco dragged Harry in before anyone passed by.  
In the room sat what looked like the comfiest couch in the world, a television, a coffee table with a bunch of snacks and drinks on it, and a shelf with a bunch of muggle movies on it.  
“How did you know about this stuff?” Harry asked, looking around the room.  
“After the war, I moved to muggle London and I learned a lot about muggle things,” Draco said, walking over to the couch, pulling Harry along with him. “I want to talk about last night before we watch a movie. Is that okay with you?” Draco asked, sitting them both down.  
Harry’s face dropped and he pulled his legs into him. “What about it?” He asked in an emotionless voice.  
“Don’t do that,” Draco said. “Don’t try and shut down!”  
Harry sighed and looked at Draco with sad eyes. “I had a nightmare,” He started in a whisper. “It happens almost every time I sleep. About the people that died. They all tell me that it’s my fault that they’re dead. That I should have died not them. When I wake up I usually end up getting a panic attack and pain helps me calm down that’s why I grabbed the knife, why I cut myself.” His voice kept getting quieter and quieter. Taking a deep breath he continued, now looking at this TV in front of them. “The pain helps ground me. I used to hate it but now it’s the one thing I control in my life. I didn’t want to be the Savior, y’know. I’d much rather be a normal person. Like the people in the background of movies. Not important. I’m not important. People only ‘care’ about me because I saved them. I only did the thing that I was told I had to do. I don’t think one thing I did was my own decision besides this,” He said moving his arm a bit.  
Draco was shocked hearing this. All of the 7 years that he’s known him he always thought that he had a hero complex but he was only doing what other people told him. He felt bad about everything he had done and said to the boy.  
Not knowing what to say, Draco pulled the now crying boy into a hug. Harry held onto him like his life depended on it and cried harder than he ever had before. Draco sat there rocking them back and forward, rubbing small circles onto his back.  
When Harry calmed down Draco pulled back to look at him. He whipped the tears from his eyes and smiled at him. “Harry, you can be your own person now. You don’t have to listen to what other people say or be who they want you to be. Be yourself. Be happy. I want you to come to me whenever you feel sad or like you’re going to hurt yourself. I’ll help you. I’ll always be here for you,” He whispered.  
Harry smiled and pulled Draco back into a hug. “Thank you. Thank you so much for everything,” Harry said.  
“You’re welcome. Why don’t we get off this sad topic and watch a movie, huh? Got any recommendations?” Draco said, pulling them over to the shelf of movies.  
They looked over the movies for a few minutes before Harry reached out and grabbed a movie. “Let’s watch this!” He said, holding up a DVD called ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’.  
“Alright then. You set it up, I still don’t know how to work that thing well,” Draco said walking back to the couch while Harry went to set it up.  
Harry walked back over to the couch and cuddled up next to Draco with a bowl of popcorn in his lap. Draco put an arm around Harry, getting comfortable, and grabbed a handful of popcorn.  
Not even 20 minutes into the movie Draco was laughing. “Are all muggles like this? If so, I want to be around them more!” He said.  
“No, I don’t think I ever met anyone that was like someone from this movie,” Harry laughed.  
“Damn, that’s a shame! This is fucking amazing. I wanna see you wearing what Frank n Furter is wearing!” Draco said, laughing ten times harder at the face Harry made.  
“Yeah, no. Not happening in a million years!” He said, sounding disgusted.  
“Oh come on! Last night we were talking about doing an 8th year costume party. We should go dressed at Frank n Furter and Rocky!” Draco said.  
“No!” Harry pouted. “I’m not wearing that! It looks painful!” He whined.  
“Please?” Draco begged, giving Harry puppy dog eyes.  
Sighing, Harry agreed. “Fine, but I don’t know how to walk in heels,” he said.  
“That’s fine! You have two months to learn! And I’ll help you!” The blonde smiled before turning his attention back to the movie.  
Harry whined a bit before resting his head on Draco’s shoulder and watching the movie.


	6. Chapter 6

After the movie, Harry and Draco decided to take a nap. Harry asked the room to give them beds but it only gave them one. They looked at each other blushing.   
“W-well, it’s not like we weren’t sleeping in the same bed last night,” Draco reasoned, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment. Harry only nodded in response. With a silent agreement, they climbed into opposite sides of the bed as far away from each other as possible.  
Soon, sleep overtook them.

***

When Draco woke up he found Harry wrapped in his arms, sleeping soundly. He smiled at the boy in his arms, pulling him closer and resting his chin on Harry’s head. He hoped that when Harry finally woke up he wouldn’t freak out and get mad at him. 

Back in 6th year, Draco had gone through an inheritance. The Malfoy line had Veela blood that went back for many generations, each child becoming one on their 16th birthday. He learned early in his life that he would soon become one himself and all the things that came along with it. His father told him that he would have a mate, someone that he would spend the rest of his life with if they were to accept him. If they didn’t, he would spend the rest of his life in depression.  
The first day after he came into his inheritance he had smelled the sweetest thing he had ever smelled. Later that day when he went to the Great Hall he found out the smell was coming from Harry, who he figured out later was his mate.  
He never got the chance to tell Harry because of the war, but now that they were close, he might be able to tell Harry and have him accept him. He hoped with all his heart that Harry would accept him.

As Draco was lost in his thoughts Harry started to wake up. He felt himself surrounded in warmth and tried to snuggle close to it until he realized that the warmth was moving. Opening his eyes, he saw that his face was tucked into someone's chest. Pulling back, he saw that he was snuggled up to Draco. His face heated up in a blush when Draco looked down at him.   
“I- uh,” He started. “Good morning?” Harry didn’t know what to think about how they were laying. It seemed to him that Draco was fine with it since he still hadn’t let go of him and for some reason, that made him happy.   
“Afternoon,” Draco corrected. “We seemed to have slept through lunch. Hermione and Pansy are probably going to kill us later.”  
Harry groaned, tucking his head back into the other’s chest. He really didn’t want to be hit with a book today. “Why does ‘Mione have to be so bossy all the time?” He whined.   
Draco chuckled, rubbing his hand up and down Harry’s shoulder. “It’s just the way she is, dork,” He replied, earning another whine from Harry.   
They laid there for about another half an hour, snuggling with each other until Draco finally spoke up again.   
“Do you think that we should start heading back to the common room?” He asked quietly.  
“I guess,” Harry said slowly, moving closer to Draco.  
The platinum-blonde laughed a little. “Come on, get up.”  
Sighing, Harry got up, following Draco’s lead, and walked out of the room. The walk back to the common room was spent in comfortable silence. Once there, the lecture started.   
“Harry James Potter! Where have you been? I was worried sick! You just ran out of class and disappeared for the rest of the day!” She said, hitting him in the back of the head with the 53 chapter book that she’d been reading. “You’re lucky that I love you enough to get your note. Next time though, I won’t be so kind.” She handed Harry a stack of well-written notes and turned around with a huff, to continue reading.   
Meanwhile with Draco, Pansy had been yelling bloody murder at the poor boy. “I can’t believe you! You just left! Telling me to get your things! Do you know how fucking heavy your school bag is? Honestly, it’s like you have bricks in there! I dragged that heavy ass thing to all our classes waiting for you to come back and relieve me but you never fucking showed up!” She continued ranting and yelling at Draco, causing Harry to feel bad. If he hadn’t dragged him out of the room he would’ve been spared the embarrassing lecture that drew the entire room's attention. 

**Mention of panic attacks, self-harm, and ed's**  
Quietly, Harry snuck up to his shared room and locked himself in the bathroom. He sat against the door with thoughts spiraling in a direction he didn’t want them to go. He’d gotten so absorbed by his self-destructive thoughts he never heard the frantic worries of the blonde that had apparently seen him hurriedly sneak away. He never noticed the door behind him give way as Draco forced it open or the loving arms that wrapped around him in an attempt to calm him down. He didn’t realize that the second there had been arms around him he’d started crying or that his face was now buried in Draco’s shoulder or the fact that there was a crowd of people standing in the entrance of their room watching the scene unfold with worry.  
Draco had finally gotten Harry to calm down about 15 minutes later. He was still crying but he was now aware of everything around him.  
“Come on, let’s move you to your bed,” Draco said in a calming voice, helping Harry stand up and lead him over to his bed, sitting down with him.   
“H-Harry?” A certain frizzy-haired girl asked cautiously. “Are you ok? What happened?”  
Harry tensed and buried his face deeper - if that was even possible - into Draco.   
“You’re going to have to tell them now,” Draco whispered. Harry knew he was right. Hermione wouldn’t leave him alone until he told her the truth and she’d know if he lied.   
“Can you tell them?” Harry asked timidly.  
Draco nodded before looking up at Hermione and the others (Ron, Pansy, Blasie) who were now standing behind her at the foot of the bed. “He has depression, I think. And that,” He said, referring to what had just happened in the bathroom. “Was a panic attack, if I’m not mistaken. On the train ride here Harry and I sat together in a compartment. I had started reading while he was sleeping. I ended up having to wake him up from a nightmare that had sent him into one. That was when I figured out something was wrong. I promised that I would help him get better though.”   
Draco decided to leave the part about his cutting and eating disorder out of the story for Harry’s sake and Harry was grateful for that. He had snuggled closer to him to show his appreciation.   
“He’s been through 3 attacks since we’ve gotten here, as far as I know,” Draco added.  
“Blimey, Harry! Why didn’t you tell us, mate?” Ron asked worriedly.   
“Sorry,” Harry mumbled, finally looking up out of Draco’s shoulder. He saw the distressed faces of his newfound friends and the puffy-eyed red faces of his ‘brother and sister.’ This is why he didn’t want them to know. They would obsessively start to worry about him rather than do things that were important for them to do for themselves. He hated that he was going to make them worry about him and hid his face back into Draco’s shoulder.   
“I think that I’m going to get dinner here if you don’t mind,” Harry said, addressing his friends. He made sure that he didn’t let go of Draco though because he didn’t want him to leave.  
“That’s fine Harry. We understand,” Hermione said quietly, ushering the others out of the room.   
Draco pulled Harry closer to him rubbing his back. “It’s a good thing that you told them, Harry. It’s going to get better now that you have all of our help, I promise.” Harry didn’t know whether or not to believe Draco but he hoped it would. “Now, how about that food?” Draco said, summoning a house-elf and ordering their food.


	7. Chapter 7

In the Great Hall Hermione, Ron, Pansy, and Blaise sat at the Gryffindor table talking about what they had seen in the dorm room ignoring the odd glances sent to the group.  
“I don’t think that I’ve ever seen Dray so protective of someone before. Well, other than himself,” Pansy said, before taking a bite of her food.  
“It is odd,” Hermione said. “How can two people go from acting like they hate each other to acting like the other is the most important person in the world the next time they see each other? It just doesn’t work like that.”  
Ron groaned. “Please tell me that you’re not going to try to find an explanation ‘Mione. I may not like the git but he seems good for Harry.”  
Hermione ignored him and instead looked at Pansy. “Do you think that something happened between them over the summer? When I went to their room to go get them this morning they were in Harry’s bed cuddling. You just don’t do that with someone you were enemies with the day before!”   
Pansy gave her an exciting look. “Let’s do an investigation!”   
It was Blaise’s turn to groan. “Pans, please don’t start this again. Remember what happened last time?”  
“What happened last time?” Ron asked, shoveling more food in his mouth.   
“Back in fifth year Millicent and Daphne had an argument and Pansy thought it would be a good idea to ‘investigate’ and help them fix the problem. Let’s just say that it ended up with both of them trying to turn Pans into a bird. Snape got there before the spell hit her, thankfully,” Blaise replied.   
“That’s because they were arguing about something they didn’t want people to know about!” Pansy defended.   
Blaise only rolled his eyes in response.   
“Anyways,” Hermione said. “I’m going to go to the library after dinner and then tomorrow, when we go to breakfast, let’s talk to them. You’ll get Draco and I’ll get Harry.”  
“Sounds good!” Pansy said, excited.

In the library, Hermione looked for some books that might be related to Harry and Draco. In the end, she had 12 books. Sitting down she sorted through them before picking one out to start with. ‘This is going to be a long night,’ she thought to herself.

In the morning Hermione and Pansy woke up early so that they could figure out what they were going to ask the boys. Pansy was going to drag Draco over to the Slytherin table for breakfast so that she could ask him without Harry being there and Hermione would be with Harry at the Gryffindor table.   
They went down to the common room so that when the boys came down, they were ready.   
When they did come down Harry was leaning on Draco whining. “Draco, do we have to go? Can’t I just sleep?”  
“No, you need breakfast. I’m not letting you skip it. You didn’t eat much of the dinner last night,” Draco replied, dragging Harry down the stairs.   
“Hey, Harry. Draco. Good morning. How was your night?” Hermione asked from the couch she was sitting on.   
“Fine,” Harry grumbled, sitting down on the love seat with Draco while they waited for Ron and Blaise to come down.  
“What’s got your panties in a twist?” Pansy asked, a small smirk on her face.   
Draco responded for Harry when he threw his head onto the back of the couch groaning. “He’s mad because I dragged him out of bed,” he said, shaking his head.  
“I’m tired!” Harry protested.  
“Well, then you should have slept instead of trying to talk to me all night!” Draco argued.   
“You answered!” Harry fought back, scowling at him.   
“I told you to shut up! That’s not answering!” Draco replied.   
“You’re so mean!” Harry whined.  
Hermione gave Pansy a smirk as they watched Draco and Harry bicker. There definitely was something going on between them. There had to be.  
Sighing, Draco turned his attention away from Harry and over to the two girls. “What the hell was that look all about?”  
“Whatever do you mean, Drakey-poo?” Pansy said, batting her eyelashes with fake innocence.   
Draco eyed them suspiciously. “What are you planning?”   
“What are you talking about? We aren’t planning anything,” Hermione said, giving him a questioning look.  
“You’re obviously planning something! Pansy’s got that look she gets when she thinks she’s onto something!” He argued.  
“Hey ‘Mione,” Harry interrupted. He agreed with Draco, Hermione looks like she’s planning something as well. “What book are you reading?” He asked. When Hermione’s planning something you could usually get an idea about what it is from the book she has.   
“Hmm? Oh! It’s a book about creature inheritance. I got it from the library last night,” She said. He had no clue what she could be planning with that book. Harry felt Draco tense beside him and gave him an odd look as Hermione continued. “It’s really interesting. I kinda wish that I had gotten an inheritance, Having a mate that would love you unconditionally forever sounds so appealing, don’t you think Harry?”  
“A person that would love you unconditionally?” Harry repeated. “What do you mean?”   
“Some people that go through a creature inheritance have soulmates who that person loves with all their heart. The other person does get a choice on whether or not they want to be with them but they both would only be truly happy if they stayed together. Thinking about it really makes me want to have a mate,” Hermione explained.   
Harry sat there thinking about it for a minute. “It does sound nice,” Harry said after a minute, “But I doubt that I’d ever had someone like that in my life,” He added.  
“Why do you say that?” Pansy questioned.  
“Because, who would ever love a murderer?” Harry said quietly, looking down at his lap.   
Before any of them could reply Ron and Blaise came stomping down the stairs. “Come on guys, let’s get down to breakfast! I’m famished!” Ron said, already heading towards the entry wall. The four others got up from their seats slowly. Draco, Pansy, and Hermione giving Harry a worried look. Draco decided that he would talk about what he said with him later as he followed the group down to the Great Hall.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking forever to update. I had a lot of stuff going on and a ton of writer's block TwT  
> I hope you are enjoying my story, I'm having a lot of fun writing it! Enjoy this next chapter! Bye Bye!!

When they got to the Great Hall Pansy grabbed Draco’s arm and pulled him over to the Slytherin table.    
“So, Drakey-poo, I have a question for you,” She said, getting right to the point. 

“Oh? Do you now?” He asked sarcastically, pilling food onto his plate. “What is it?”

“You and Harry. What’s going on between you two? I know for a fact that nothing happened between the two of you over the summer so how is it you go from loathing him before to overprotective boyfriend?”

Draco stared at her with wide eyes.  _ ‘Should I tell her?’  _ He thought.  _ ‘I know that she’d be fine with it but what if she tells Harry? I don’t want him to know yet!” _

“Draco, you can tell me,” Pansy said softly, recognizing the fear on Draco’s face. “I won’t tell anyone besides ‘Mione. And I can get her to Vow not to tell Harry. All we want is to help you two. We think that you are good for each other.”

Draco stayed quiet for a moment before sighing. “I-I’m a Veela,” He said slowly.

“And Harry’s your mate?” Pansy questioned, earning a nod from Draco. “Why are you scared then?”

“I don’t think that he’ll want to be with me,” Draco admitted. “I mean you know how I’ve treated him all these years! I was a complete arse!” He nearly yelled the last bit before dropping his voice to a whisper. “I-I’ve been trying to fix it though. During the war, when you guys were in the dungeons, Harry and I had a few run-ins. We both saved each other's lives. He saved me from getting swallowed by Crabbe’s Fiendfyre.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “When I thought he died, I-I broke. I could have saved him, stopped him from going to the forest and facing  _ him _ . I felt like my entire world crashed around me, like my reason for living was gone. I never knew that my mates ‘death’ could do that. But when he jumped out of Hagrid’s arms I- I knew that I was given a second chance. I Vowed to myself that I’d do everything in my power to protect him, and I did. I ran in between him and V-Voldemort and gave him my wand. And with my wand, he won. I know that he won’t accept being my mate after all the pain I’ve put him through so I’ll try to get as close to him as I can.”

“Oh, Draco!” Pansy cried, pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. “I promise you that if you tell him he won’t reject you! I don’t think that he would let you do the thing you do together if he hadn’t forgiven you! Draco, promise me that you won’t continue to keep this from him. He needs to know!”

“I- I don’t know Pans. You can’t be sure that he will accept me,” Draco said, laying his head on her shoulder.

“Dray, just promise me that you’ll eventually tell him?” She said quietly.

“I- Alright,” Draco sighed.

* * *

“Harry? Are you ok?” Hermione asked the boy who was pushing food around his plate.   
“Hmm? Yeah, I’m fine, why?” Harry asked, looking up at her. “Look if this is about last night-” He started.    
“Harry, don’t. You don’t have to talk about that until you’re ready to tell us,” She said, giving him a sad smile which Harry returned. 

“Thank’s ‘Mione,” He said quietly.

“Hey, mate. What’s going on with you and Malfoy?” Ron asked, surprising Hermione. She turned to look at him, eyebrow raised in question. Ron just winked at her before turning back to Harry who had a light blush covering his cheeks.

U-Uh nothing, why do you ask?” Harry stuttered, avoiding eye contact. 

“There can’t be nothing! You were  _ cuddling _ yesterday when I came to get you for breakfast!” Hermione argued.

“I- Look,” Harry said, gaining more of a blush. “I promise, nothing is going on. I - He- Uh- I had a nightmare and he helped me and we both fell back to sleep in my bed. I didn’t  _ mean _ to sleep with him!”

“You sure about that? Because you two act like a lovey-dovey couple so much in the past two days it makes me want to puke!” Ron said, sticking his tongue out and pointing down his throat in mock disgust. 

“I- I’m sure that’s not true,” Harry weakly denied. 

“Harry, he  _ carried _ you back to your room when you fell asleep on his  _ shoulder _ ! That’s not something that two boys that are only friends do!”

“I-I I don’t even know if I like him like that guys!” Harry argued.    
“You stalked him  _ all  _ of 6th year. That’s not something that someone who ‘hates’ someone else does!” Ron said, rolling his eyes. “Come on, mate. Everyone and their mom knows that you fancy Malfoy!”

Harry looked over to Hermione for help but only got a nod, confirming what Ron said was true. Harry whined, “Fine so I fancy him! There, happy? J-just don’t tell him?” He pleaded.

“Promise, we won’t!” Ron said, shooting him a big grin before going back to stuffing his face. 

“I won’t tell him Harry but I think that you should one day. You never know, he might like you too,” Hermione said, softly.

Harry only scoffed in response. “Yeah, I doubt that,” He said before taking a small bite of food. 


	9. Chapter 9

Harry sat in his History of Magic class, unable to fall asleep like a majority of the Gryffindor’s that accompanied him. He sat in the middle of Hermione and Ron with Ginny, Neville, and Luna at the table in front of them. 

Ginny had come up to him before class had started and tried to sit next to Harry before Ron -- not so subtly -- pushed her out of the way and started a conversation with him about Quidditch. 

His two friends kept sending worried glances his way when they thought he wasn’t paying attention. ‘ _This is the_ exact _reason I didn’t want them to know,_ ’ He groaned internally. 

Harry couldn’t wait to get out of this class and out of their -- annoyingly obsessive -- watch. Instead of paying attention like one would think he was doing, he sat there wishing that the boring droning of the ghost would end and that he could once again be in the company of Draco Malfoy. 

For the past two days, he had been with the boy constantly and now that he wasn’t by his side he felt weird like something big was missing. He was beginning to believe the half-hearted confession that he blurted out so that his two friends would get off his back. Maybe he really did fancy Draco.

Harry’s face went red as he admitted it to himself. Groaning, he buried his heated face in his arms on top of the table. Are Ron and Hermione even ok with it? It seems that they are fine with the fact that he’s bi but are they ok with the fact that the bloke he likes is Malfoy? After all, he has bullied them their entire time at Hogwarts.

“Harry? What’s wrong? Are you ok?” Hermione asked him, for once, worrying about something other than the lesson.

“Mate, should we leave class? Do you think that would help?” Ron whispered.

“No,” Harry mumbled. “I’m fine, I was just thinking about… Draco.” He said, peeking out of his arm.

“Really? What about?” She asked slyly.

Harry’s blush deepened and put his face back in his arms. “I- Shouldn’t you be paying attention to class and not me?” He asked her. 

Huffing, Hermione turned back to the lesson, leaving Harry alone to his thoughts.

* * *

Harry walked down to the Great Hall trailing behind his friends, two of which were whispering about something. For some reason, Harry had the feeling that they were talking about him. 

When they arrived Harry saw Draco sitting over with his friends at the Slytherin table and blushed. Ron and Hermione saw this and smirked at each other. Hermione linked arms with Harry.

“Hey Harry,” She started, while changing his direction from the Gryffindor table to the Slytherin without him noticing. “What did you do to Padfoot’s home during the summer? You said you remodel it?” She asked.

“Oh, um, I guess. Well, I - um, I don’t really know how to explain what I did,” Harry lied. “But I did find some more rooms that we never cleaned out. There’s a whole ‘nother library full of books that I’m sure you’d like, ‘Mone. I also found a room that looked like Sirius had hid a ton of Gryffindor things in. Like, there was a whole freaking lion running around on the wallpaper that was painted red and gold and the carpet was red and - and - there was just so much!” Harry laughed. “Though it looked like it was found. Maybe after he ran away -- I don’t know, but it was all torn up and burnt. I fixed it up though and I found pictures of the Marauders…” Harry trailed off, looking down at the ground as they walked. 

“Oh- I’m sorry Harry! I didn’t mean to get you upset! Oh!” Hermione stopped walking and pulled Harry into a hug. 

Ron -- who was walking with them -- awkwardly rubbed Harry’s back in an attempt to soothe him. 

Harry hugged Hermione back, burying his head into the crook of her neck. Maybe Draco was right, maybe it really was a good thing that he told his friends. 

The three stood there hugging for a few minutes before Hermione pulled back. “Let’s go eat, yeah? People might start to get ideas if we stand here hugging too long,” She whispered, wiping a few stray tears. 

Ron and Harry huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, they might,” Harry said. “I’m sorry for making you cry,” He said softly. 

“Nonsense! You don’t have to apologize for that because you didn’t make me cry,” Hermione scolded, her hands on her hips like a disappointed mother speaking to her child though she had a soft, reassuring smile that made sure that Harry knew that she wasn’t at all. 

“Yeah, mate! You haven’t done anything that you should have to apologize for,” Ron said, giving him a reassuring pat on the back.

Harry looked back and forth between Ron and Hermione, tears forming in his eyes. He really didn’t deserve friends like them he thought. He pulled them both back into a hug as he started crying.

“Thank you. Thank you for being here, I love you guys more than you could know,” He cried. 

“Oh, Harry! We love you too, so much! I promise that I’ll do my best to help you through whatever you are going through!” Hermione said, her tear coming back full force.

“Yeah! Harry, you are my best mate -- my _brother_! I’d do anything for you, and you know that!” Ron said, hugging Harry back. 

The three stood there, in the middle of the Great Hall, with most - if not all eyes on them, crying and holding on to each other. That moment Harry decided that he would tell them everything knowing that they wouldn’t judge him or be mad at him for what he did to himself.

“He- Hey guys,” Harry said, pulling back and whipping his eyes. “I want to talk to you guys after dinner, later. About everything.”

Hermione smiled at him and nodded. “Of course, Harry. We’ll be there! Now let's go over to Draco before he decides to come over here and steal you away from us for the rest of the day again,” She said causing Harry to look over to the Slytherin table -- which he realized they were closer to than the Gryffindor -- and saw Draco staring at him with worry. Harry gave him a small smile before looking back at his best friends. 

“Yeah, let's go,” He said. “By any chance did you try to bring me over to their table without me noticing earlier?” He asked Hermione with a smirk as they walked over to Draco. 

“Oh- er- Maybe?” Hermione said bashfully. “I knew you wouldn’t come over here on your own and well -- I think that being with Draco is good for you so I thought that bringing you over to him would -- well--”

Harry laughed at her rambling, “Thanks ‘Mione. Really!” He added when she gave him a confused look. “I was kind of worried that you wouldn’t be ok with me liking him.”

“How dare you even think that Harry! I’ll always support you 100% with whoever you want to be with!” Hermione said, offended. 

“Ah- sorry,” He mumbled, looking away. “I just thought you wouldn’t be okay with it because of what he’s done to us in the past.” 

“Harry, mate, I don’t really like the fact that it’s Malfoy of all people, but I can see the way that he looks at you is full of care -- it's the same way I look at ‘Mione! I can tell that he won’t hurt you so I’ll support you, but the second he hurts you I will hex his balls off!” Ron said.

“You talk as if we are already together,” Harry laughed as they reached Draco and his friends.

“Who’s together?” Draco asked as he pulled Harry into the seat next to him.

“Oh! Er- n-no one,” Harry stuttered blushing. 

“Hmm,” The blonde hummed, looking between him and his friends who were smirking at Harry. “What happened when you guys were coming in?”

“I asked Harry about what he’s done to Sirius’ house over the summer and he started talking about some things and he got upset,” Hermione explained.

“Oh, are you feeling better now?” Draco asked Harry, as he put some food on a plate for him. “Eat as much as you can, ok?” He whispered so that only Harry could hear him. 

Harry nodded and said, “Yeah, we talked and I think that I’m going to tell them about -- y’know the other things.” Harry told him as he took a bite of Shepards Pie.

“Malfoy already knows?” Ron said, surprised.

“Yeah...” Harry said slowly, not looking up at Ron. “He found out on the train.”

“Found out? What do you mean?” Hermione said, worriedly. 

Harry took a deep breath and looked up at her. “I’ll tell you later,” he whispered, giving her a soft smile.

Draco smiled down at the smaller boy and put his hand on his back, rubbing up and down in a soothing way. Harry unconsciously leaned into Draco as he went back to eating small bites of his food. This action didn’t go unnoticed by the two girls who were sitting at the table with them. The two of them smirked at each other, and Pansy nodded towards the door and Hermione nodded. 

“Harry, I’ll see you after lunch. Pansy and I have a potions essay to work on,” Hermione said, as she and Pansy stood up to leave.

“Potions? When did you have that class?” Harry asked. 

“While you and Draco were skipping class together doing who knows what,” Pansy laughed.

Harry blushed. “All we did was watch a movie and take a nap together in the Room of Requirements!” He said, trying to defend himself and Draco.

“Harry, shut up!” Draco said, blushing as well. “You’ve just told two fangirls that we slept together!” 

“Hemione already knew that we did the other night too, and I’m sure that she already told Pansy too,” Harry said, innocently confused. 

“Well-” Draco was cut off by Pansy’s squealing, which got the entire hall's attention.

“You’ve slept together twice?” She yelled loud enough for _everyone_ to hear.

“N-not like that! I- the first time was an accident and the second time the room only gave us one bed!” Draco stuttered, his face redder.

Harry leaned over to Ron who was sitting next to him and -- not so quietly -- whispered, “What does he mean ‘Not like that?” Causing Ron to spit out his food and start coughing.

Across from them, Blaise burst out laughing. “Potter, do you not know what sex is?”

Harry looked over to him even more confused. “No? Should I?”

“Did your family not tell you anything growing up?” He asked seriously, ignoring Pansy and Hermione who were laughing like hyenas.

“No, they would never talk to me unless they wanted me to do a chore or when I did it wrong,” He said. “What? What is it?” He asked looking around the group of 8th years. “Come on, someone tell me!” 

“Harry,” Draco said before doubling over with laughter.

No one ever told Harry what it meant...


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ask and you shall receive! Thank you all for the comments, they really encouraged me to write more (Even though I should be focusing on other things.... *cough cough* school...) Every time I get the email saying that I got a new comment I smile. It makes me so happy to know that people actually like my stories! Anyways, thank you all for reading, I hope you enjoy the chapter!!

Later that day, the unlikely group of friends sat around the 8th year common room joking. (Mostly about Harry’s lack of knowledge)

“Oh my god!” Harry groaned. “Will someone please just tell me what it is!” 

“Oh don’t worry, you’ll find out. Maybe Draco could even show you,” Pansy smirked.

Draco suddenly became redder than Ron's hair. “I- I what no! I can’t  _ show _ him that!” He stuttered.

“Why not?” Harry whined, pouting. 

“Hey, don’t make that face! I can’t show you because we aren’t dating. Only couples should do it,” Draco mumbled, looking away from Harry’s pout. That face would be the death of him once the smaller boy found out what it did to him. 

“Couples? So it’s like kissing?” Harry asked him. In the background, Ron and Blaise were laughing so hard that they couldn’t breathe while Pansy and Hermione were smirking at them. Oh, they would definitely have the two dating by the holiday break. 

“Y-yeah, that's involved with it sometimes, I guess,” The blonde responded. 

“Have you ever had sex?” Harry asked innocently, causing the entire group beside Draco to die of laughter. 

“Yeah, Dracky-poo, Have you?” Pansy said, laughing. 

Draco huffed. “You of all people should know that I haven’t, considering I’ve told you what I am.”

“Oh my god! You actually said that in front of him!” She said, doing her signature fan-girl screech. 

“What does she mean? What are you?” Harry asked with a confused look directed at both Pansy and Draco. Harry noticed that Blaise, Hermione, and Ron didn’t look confused and got even more confused. “Is there something you guys aren’t telling me? Why are you keeping so much stuff from me!” Harry whined. 

“I’m not trying to keep the first thing from you!” Draco said, defending himself. “It's just an awkward topic…” 

“But the second thing?” Harry asked, with a sad look in his eye.

“That’s something that I only told Pansy and Blaise! I don’t know how- wait yes I do. Pansy! Come on! Why the hell did you tell them that?” Draco turned to her. “I trusted you!”

“Draco, honey, that was a bad decision on your part. You should know that Hermione and I are working on something together and I’m positive -- now that I have evidence that it is possible -- that it will happen before the holiday break,” She said with a smirk. Her gaze fell from Draco and slid over to an even more confused Harry.

“Nu-uh, no you are not doing what I think you’re doing. I will tell him on my own, I don’t need you guys getting involved!” Draco fumed. 

“Please, we all know that if we weren’t here to help you, you’d never have told him and you’d both live your lives lonely.”

“That’s not true! I- I actually have a plan on when it will happen!” He lied.

“Okay,” Hermione interrupted the argument. “While you too argue, I think that Ron, Harry, and I have something that we need to talk about,” She said looking at the two boys.

“O-oh yeah,” Harry said, suddenly very shy. “U-um Draco, could you come too?” He asked quietly. 

“Of course,” He said softly, the ‘betrayal’ and anger instantly leaving him. The blonde stood up and held out a hand to Harry who gladly took it. They all -- minus Pansy and Blaise -- walked up to the boys’ shared room. Draco and Harry sat on Draco’s bed while Ron and Hermione sat on Harry’s bed across from them.

“So, um, how do I start this…” Harry said, thinking out loud. Taking a deep breath, Harry started, “I guess there’s a reason that I don’t eat much. Um, my relatives never let me eat a lot when I was younger and they to-told me ‘Freaks don’t get to eat’ and stuff like that so I got a habit of not eating a lot because - because I’m a-” 

“Don’t you dare say that you’re a freak, Harry,” Hermione interrupted. “You are not. How many times have I told you that? You are not a freak. You are a normal human being that just so happens to have magic like the rest of us. You. Are. Not. A. Freak.” Hermione sternly scolded.

“I- yeah, sorry, habit,” Harry said, looking at his lap. “Well, over the summer that thought kept going through my mind. ‘I don’t deserve to eat. I’m a freak. The freak’s still here  _ eating _ like a selfish  _ pig  _ while there are so many people that don’t get to eat’” Harry spat the last part. He spoke as if he forgot that he was telling them that and not himself. 

Hermione gasped, holding her hands over her mouth as tears started falling from her eyes. She couldn’t believe that these things could even go through someone's head.

Draco grabbed one of Harry’s hands, intertwining their fingers. That action seemed to bring him back to them. 

He drew in another shaky breath and continued. “I- I stopped eating. I only ate the bare minimum. Draco seemed to figure that out somehow and made sure that I had enough on my plate. Yesterday morning was when he started doing that. I ended up eating more than my stomach could handle…” He trailed off.    
“Is that why you two ran out of the hall?” Ron asked, quietly, his voice breaking a bit. 

Harry nodded. “T-there’s something else too,” Harry added, moving his free hand to cover his wrist. 

“Harry-  _ Please  _ tell me you don’t,” Hermione cried, noticing the small movement 

“It helps,” He whispered, not meeting anyone's eyes. Harry squeezed Draco’s hand as if he needed to make sure he was still there -- as if to make sure he hadn’t left him. Draco, in response, rubbed his thumb over the smaller boy’s knuckles. “I-it’s the one thing that could ground me, a-and helps me calm down when I had a panic attack. It was the  _ one  _ thing I felt like I could control in my  _ pathetic _ excuse of a life.” Tears started falling from his eyes before he could stop them. “I-I’m sorry. I’m causing you pain by telling you this. I- I should have kep-” 

“No! I’m glad that you told me, mate. We all are! We will help you get better! Make sure that you’re able to eat again, that you’ll be able to stop hurting yourself! Harry, I’m sure that I speak for all of us when I say; _ I love you _ . More than anything! You, Hermione, my family -- you are the most important thing in my life! I will do anything that I can to help you, I promise. Please, when you are starting to think bad things of yourself or you feel the need to hurt yourself, come to me. Talk to me.  _ Confide  _ in me! You were my first friend in this school, you didn’t judge me because of my family, how much money we have, or the state of my home -- you even said that the shoddy place was amazing!” He forced out a laugh at that even though there was nothing humorous going on. “You gave me the  _ best _ school years I could have asked for! Us sneaking out, going on adventures that could have led to our deaths -- I  _ loved  _ that Harry. And if I had never met you I wouldn’t know what it would feel like to be truly happy. I wouldn’t know what it felt like to have someone that I could completely trust with my life! Harry, you are my best friend -- my  _ brother _ ! And not only I see you as my brother, but so do all of my brothers. My mum and dad see you as one of their own! Because  _ you _ were always there for me when _ I  _ needed  _ you _ , And now I’m going to return that favor, Harry. I’m going to be here for you. I’m going to show you exactly what you’ve done for me and more. Please, Harry, talk to us -- to  _ me  _ so that I can do that,” Ron whispered the last part, hoping that the soft words would convey his feelings.

Everyone in the room was surprised by Ron’s outburst. He had never spoken like that about anything or anyone in his life before and Harry could tell that he truly meant every word he said. 

He stood up, letting go of Draco’s hand, and ran over to Ron, hugging him. He sobbed into the red-heads shoulder, harder than he had ever cried before. 

Next to them, Hermione was also crying and Ron pulled her into their group hug. The three of them sat there crying with each other long enough for Draco to start feeling awkward. 

Silently, he creeped out of the room and walked back down to the common room where Pansy and Blaise still sat. 

The blonde plopped down on the couch that he and Harry have seemed to have claimed and let out an over-dramatic sigh.

“What happened?” Pansy asked... 

“They talked about things, and then Weasley ranted and now they are all up there crying,” He summarized. 

“I’m guessing that we aren’t going to know what they talked about?” Blaise asked.

“Not unless Harry wants to tell you,” He responded. 


	11. Chapter 11

Over the next few days, the group of Slytherin’s and Gryffindor’s became inseparable. You’d never see Pansy without Hermione or Draco without Harry and even Ron and Blaise became close! Sometimes the group would be joined by Neville or Theo -- who Harry found out was nothing like he thought he would be. 

Harry did, however, have a few …  _ run-ins  _ with Ginny who still tried to claim that she and Harry were dating. Ron tried to get her off of him many times and ended up having to threaten her by telling their mum that she wouldn’t stop trying to pursue Harry after him telling her no. 

Waking up to the sound of Harry’s distressed noises became a nightly occurrence for Draco and he quickly found out that crawling into his bed and holding him seems to make the nightmares go away. This always resulted in Harry becoming a blushing mess whenever he found himself snuggled close to Draco in the morning. 

Harry had been doing much better mentally after he talked to Ron and Hermione -- he only had 4 panic attacks since and only one of those ended up with him cutting. Thankfully Draco had found him right after that happened and healed him quickly. 

“Hey Harry,” Pansy said, walking up to where he sat in the library with Hermione and Ron. “Could I talk to you for a minute?”

“Oh, um sure,” He said. He hadn’t talked with Pansy by himself in the time they had become friends. They had only talked when either Hermione or the rest of the group was there. 

He got up and followed her behind some shelves away from his friends. 

“You wanted to know about sex right?” Pansy asked him with a smirk. 

“Oh, um, yeah, I guess,” Harry said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Why do you ask?”

“Here,” She said, ignoring his question and thrust a book into his hands. “Read this and you’ll know what it is.”

“A book?” He asked, flicking through the pages.

“Yep. It’s an erotica book. Full of sex. One of my own, you won’t find anything like this here. Read it when you get back to your dorm and give it back when you’re done!” And with that she walked away, leaving Harry confused. 

Shaking his head at her antics, he walked back over to Ron and Hermione and quickly shoved the book in his bag. He didn’t know why, but he felt like he had to hide it from the others.

“What did she want?” Ron asked as he sat down.

“Ah, just wanted to give me a book,” He replied dismissively before going back to the Charms book he was currently reading. 

After a while, Harry dismissed himself saying that he promised to hang out with Draco though instead of actually going to find him, he ran back to his room, took out the book, closed the curtains around his bed, and read the book Pansy gave him. 

The contents of the book shocked him though the thing that shocked him, even more, was his body's reaction to the things he was reading. He knew that this had happened to him before when he woke when he was younger but he didn’t know how to deal with it. He tried to ignore the reaction and continue to read, but he hadn’t gotten far when he attempted to move to a more comfortable position. He didn’t know why, but when he moved a wave of pleasure ran up his spine.

He quickly made the connection that what was happening in his pants was like what happened to the men in the book and thought about doing some of the things they did. And so he did. 

He moved the book to the side, pulled down his trousers, and touched himself. What he felt had to have been the best feeling ever. He never felt anything like it before. 

He continued to play with himself, but right as he was about to climax, a knock sounded through the room, startling Harry. 

“Harry, are you in there?” He heard Hermione ask.

Before he could answer another person spoke. “If something was happening to him he wouldn’t answer,” He heard them say, barging into the room. He could tell that it was Draco. 

“W-Wait! No, don't come in here!” Harry yelled, scrambling around the bed trying to clean himself up and hide the book before anyone came over.

“Harry? Are you ok?” Draco asked, walking quickly over to his bed. He opened his curtains right as Harry shoved the book under his pillow, thankful that he pulled his pants back on first. “What was that?” He asked, trying to look under Harry’s pillow.

“Ah! N-nothing! No, don’t!” Harry said, his face flushed. He was holding his pillow down so Draco wouldn’t see the book. 

Hermione walked over to them and laughed. “Draco, I think you should listen to him. From the look on his face, it seems he was reading the book Pansy gave him.”

“Book? What book?” He asked, letting go of the pillow, which Harry quickly buried his face in. If Hermione knew about the book, she probably knew what he was doing too. 

Hermione leaned over and whispered into Draco’s ear. 

“Oh!” He laughed. “Well then Harry, I’ll leave you alone to read your book.”

Harry only groaned into his pillow in response. There was no way he would pick up that book again. 

Once his two friends left the room, Harry peaked out of the pillow and closed his curtains again. He  _ never  _ wanted to leave his bed again after that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the short chapter, I haven't had any ideas for how I want the next big chapter to go. I hope you enjoyed this short little filler of Harry's exploration lmao I'll try to get more out soon. Thanks for reading!


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Reminder: Please do NOT read this story if you get triggered easily! I want to make sure that every one stays safe and that my story is not a cause for someone wanting to hurt themselves.  
> Once again, thank you all for you support, it means a lot to me! Sorry for taking so long with this chapter, I had a lot going on last week and then went on a trip over the weekend. I hope y'all enjoy this chapter!

Once the weekend of the second week of school, the class of 8th years decided that they would throw their party without the other houses. Everyone gathered around in the center of the common room that had been cleared of all furnishings so that they could all sit in a circle on the floor. 

The group consisted of Harry, Draco, Hermione, Pansy, Ron, Blaise, Neville, Theo, Lavender Brown, Dean, Seamus, Hannah Abbot, Ernest MacMillan, Susan Bones, and Terry Boot.

Dean, Seamus, and Pansy had been the ones to plan the entire thing - a strange trio.. Surprisingly -- at least in Harry’s mind -- everything was going great so far. Since they were of age, Dean and Seamus were allowed to bring Firewhiskey to the party which made everything ten times better. During their earlier games, Ron, Dean, and Seamus had already gotten themselves drunk and were clumsy staggering around as they were -- purposely -- paired together for a game of Charades which they lost.

Now, the group of 8th years sat in a circle playing truth or dare. The rules were a bit different then the muggle version though. If someone chose truth, they would have to take a sip of short-lasting Veritaserum. If they chose dare, they would have to do the dare, if not they would be subjected to a small bit of pain until either they did it or the game ended. 

Right now it was Theo’s turn to ask someone so he turned towards Harry. “Hey, Potter,” he slurred, slightly drunk. “Truth or Dare?”

“Truth,” Harry said, leaning over to the center of the circle to take a sip of the Veritaserum before settling back next to Draco.

Theo sat there thinking for a moment before asking, “What was your childhood like?”

Although it was a seemingly innocent question, Harry tensed and tried to stop the words from coming out. “I-I grew up with my muggle relatives… T-they weren’t very nice people,” He started, obviously straining to get the words out. “My room was the cupboard under the stairs… and they always locked me in there when I did something wrong. When I was five… they started having me do the cleaning and weeding of my Aunt’s garden and whenever I messed up t-they b-b-beat me and locked me in my cupboard…” At this point Harry had started crying. Everyone around the room stared at him shocked as he continued. “When I was seven they started having me cook for them… and if I burnt their food, t-they would burn me… I barely got anything to eat -- only the bare minimum to survive. In school, if I were to get better grades then my cousin, I would get punished and Dudley and his f-friends would always play ‘Harry Hunting’ and chase me around until they got me and beat me up… I didn’t know that I was a wizard till I was eleven… They told me that my Mum and Dad were drunks and died in a car accident… Whenever people came over, they made me hide so that no one knew I existed. It was only the summer after my first year that I was able to get Dudley’s second bedroom, but they had put a series of locks on it to keep me in there and barred my window… After I started coming here for school the beatings got worse… Over the smallest things…” Harry trailed off as the Veritaserum wore off. 

Before anyone could do or say anything Harry ran out of the common room, memories of his days at the Dursley’s running around in his head. He didn’t know where he was running to, he just let his feet guide him.

In the common room, Draco had immediately tried to grab Harry before he left but didn’t reach him in time. He turned around yelling at the others to go get McGonagall before running off to go look for Harry. 

After about 10 minutes, Draco ran out into a courtyard followed by Pansy and Hermione. He searched in every nook and cranny for his mate, but he couldn’t find him anywhere. He was about to go back inside when Hermione screamed.

“Oh my god! H-He just jumped!” She yelled, pointing to the body falling from the Astronomy Tower. Her scream got the attention of those who were in the halls searching for Harry -- at some point the entire staff and student body was called out to look for their savior -- and people came running out. 

Draco didn’t even think before running into action. His wing burst out of his back causing some shocked screams from some of the students that were crowded around and flew up to catch Harry.

To the relief of many, Draco got to Harry before he was even close to the ground. Draco held the sobbing boy to him as he hovered in the air. 

“I-I’m sorry! I-I’m so sorry, Draco! I couldn’t handle it! I-I-” Harry cried into Draco’s shoulder, not yet realizing that they were flying and that Draco had wings. 

“Shh, it’s okay Harry. Shh, everything is going to be okay. I’m here. I’m right here, Harry. I’ll never let you go. You don’t need to worry about anything anymore, I promise. I’m going to take all the pain away from you. I’ll make sure that the only thing you feel is happiness. It might not happen right away, but I promise you that I will someday soon,” Draco soothed. 

He was petting Harry’s hair, trying to calm him down, and soon, it worked. Harry finally got enough sense of the situation and looked up at Draco in confusion. “How did you get to me before I fell?” He asked just as he noticed Draco’s wings and squirmed a bit in shock. “Oh my Gods! Draco, you have wings!” He yelled, staring at them wide-eyed.

Draco grunted and tightened his grip on Harry. “You need to stop moving like that. I don’t want to drop you,” Draco said and Harry finally noticed that they were still in the air and tightly wrapped his arms around the others shoulders.

“Oh my! I’m sorry!” The smaller boy yelled. Harry bit his lip before getting the courage to ask, “Can I touch them?” 

“When we get to the ground,” Draco responded, as he lowered them. The entire descent, Harry stared at his wings in awe. He had no idea that Draco had wings! ‘ _ Wait-’ _ Harry thought suddenly. ‘ _ Does that mean that he is one of those creatures that Hermione was talking about? Does he have a mate?’  _

Harry’s thoughts once again started spiralling, so much so that he didn’t notice that the two were on the ground or that Draco growled animalistically at anyone that tried to come near Harry. 

“Draco?” Harry whispered quietly, pointedly looking down at the Veela’s chest to avoid eye-contact. “Do you have a mate?”

Draco looked down at him in confusion. Why did he sound sad? Does he not yet realize that he was his mate? “Why are you asking me that, Harry?” Draco finally responded. He had wrapped his wings around the two of them to make sure that no one could get near them. Anyone who tried would be cut by feathers that were only soft for the Veela and his mate.

“W-why are you wasting your time on me when you should be with them? Don’t you think that they are upset that you are always with me and never them?” He sounded so dejected and it broke Draco’s heart. 

“Harry, look at me,” Draco said softly, pulling the raven's chin up with a gentle finger. “You don’t have to worry about that because my mate is  _ you _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hehe sorry not sorry


End file.
